The Last Wall

"He- he still looks like he has lost both daughter and granddaughter," Wim said.

"He has."

"But I saved the child..."

"Come with me," she said.

She started down the street.

He could run, flee this sinister woman. But was that even possible? Would she simply reappear ahead of him? And the little girl? Was there no hope for her?

Trembling, Wim followed the woman in yellow to the next street and the shelter of an empty vendor's stall. In it, there was a loose cobble sitting atop a pile of sand. She picked up a nearby bucket, filled by the rain, and trickled water onto the stone, sending tiny rivulets running off in all directions.

"Time runs like scattered threads," she said. She bent down and wiped the stone dry with a cloth from her belt. She poured water again, this time using the fingers of her other hand to merge the rivulets into a smaller number of streams. "With effort, we can nudge the threads into a desired course." She dried the stone once more and poured a single stream of water. "Once matters have been altered enough, the passage of time is set. The scattered rivulets pass lightly over the stone until they are directed. Then, they cut a channel too deep for the threads to escape. The possibilities in time become fixed."

"I don't... I don't understand."

"You are in an eddy of time that has no successors," she said. "You did not escape the barrels."

"But I dodged them! It took only three tries!"

"That is all you remember. There were many more attempts. The past is set. You are dead."

"Then why am I here?"

"Those of us in the Last Wall are severed from the stream of time. We live outside it, intervening as necessary. When the city is threatened, we change the course of events to remove the danger."

"The last line of defense."

"Yes."

"What can my fate or this accident with a wagon have to do with the city's well-being?"

The woman's skin remained as flawless as ever, her hair as silky black, but the depth of her eyes, the sudden droop to her shoulders made her seem terribly, unaccountably ancient.

"You will be my apprentice," she said. "You will take my place. And then I shall be no more."

"Why me?"

"Have you heard of the Arcthions?"

"The Arcturions?"

"Is that what they are called in this age?" She turned away from Wim and her eyes focused on a distance the street could not encompass. "They destroyed the city. Nothing was left."

Wim frowned. "No, even though it was long ago, we know-"

She jerked her gaze back to him. "It was over a thousand years ago. And I assure you they left barely one stone upon another in the smoking ruins." For a moment, her eyes watered. "But I knew a way to change things. You see, I had learned to walk through time. With that art, I meddled until the enemy army succumbed to a plague. The sack never happened. The city still lived."

"How did the Last Wall come to be?"

"I convinced the king, a foolish man responsible for our near ruin, to set aside the wall for me. And I recruited others, those with an attention to detail and a quick wit to assist me."

"If there are others, why do you need me?"

"We live apart from time itself. Our bodies are ageless. Our souls are not. To save the greatest number, to protect the city, it is sometimes necessary to let those die that could be saved, even to put some into peril. The others who began with me have already sought oblivion."

"You killed my uncle."

"I manipulated events to put him into harm's way."

"Why?"

"To see if he could affect time. To determine if he could take my place."

"He failed?"

"Like you, he eventually succeeded."

"Then why..."

"He refused my offer."

"What will become of my wife and daughter?"

"Your daughter can never be. When you died, Katrina married another."

Wim's stomach heaved. "You did this. You made it so that the nearer temples were closed. You're the reason I was on the street where I died."

She held his gaze for a moment before nodding.

"I refuse you as well," Wim said.

"Then, like your uncle, you shall be no more."

"How can you mock me if you seek oblivion yourself?"

"I do not mock. I merely state the result of your decision. I will find another." She smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle in her dress.

Wim felt dizzy. Did the needs of the city outweigh his own? No, not enough for him to become a creature such as her.

"I won't-"

The day was suddenly sunny once more. He and the woman in yellow stood at the bottom of the steep street. There was a tug on his supplicant's sleeve. The little girl was at his side.

"Sir, my mommy wanted me to give you this apple for saving me."

He coughed to clear the tightness in his throat. "Thank you little one." He took the apple from the child. She curtsied and skipped away.

"She and I are both... both dead?"

The woman in yellow nodded.

"Why can't we live our lives in this- this eddy you say we're in?"

"Like a bubble on the water, it will not last."

"Have you no compassion? Not only have you destroyed my life, you've killed the little girl."

"Had I not interfered, she would have been killed by the barrels. I merely brought you to the place where this happened."

"But you could have changed things so that she didn't die."

The woman in yellow sighed. "When I intervene, time becomes fixed. It can no longer be changed before that point. Should an army have appeared that threatened the city, I would only have been able to address that threat by manipulating events after the girl's life was saved, had I chosen to do so."

"But my actions must have fixed things."

She clenched her jaw for a moment before speaking. "Then you must realize how important release must be to me."

Wim bit his tongue to avoid vomiting. Her talk of time made his head dizzy. He was not sure he fully understood what she meant except that she had doomed him. If he joined her on the Wall, would he become a monster like her, toying capriciously with lives? Determining who lived and who died, with no recognition and no escape in sight?

"You never told me why you selected me," Wim said.

"Because you have the mind and the heart to do this terrible task."

Was this his chance to slay dragons? If she spoke the truth, he was already dead to his family but he could still protect them, and the city.

And the little girl.

"If the child can come with me then I will be your apprentice."

A trace of a smile softened her visage. She nodded once more.